Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind.(Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last.(Friends of Israel Initiative)

Friday, 28 September 2012

Last week, CiF Watch's Adam Levick produced a magnificent piece entitled "Jewish reaction to antisemitism in the Arab world: no riots, no injuries, no deaths" replete with pictorial examples of the antisemitism that bedevils the Muslim world. CiF Watch subsequently cross-posted a compellingly informative article from Palestinian Media Watch regarding the routine demonisation of Jews ("depicted as beasts, evil, satanic") in the media of the Palestinian Authority.

In this, the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer, the focus is on antisemitism among Palestinian Arabs, and why it's an impediment to a true and lasting peace with Israel. The article is entitled "Palestine: End The Jew Hatred, End The Conflict".

Writes David Singer:

'The universal international condemnation of the anti-Islamic film "Innocence of Muslims" – whilst defending at the same time the freedom of individuals to express those abhorrent views – has come in response to the anger and violence that has broken out in many Moslem populations around the world and cost the lives of the American Ambassador to Libya – J. Christopher Stevens – and three other members at the Embassy in Benghazi on September 11.

Such reactions need to be compared with the continuing failure to condemn, repudiate, and disassociate from the official policies of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hamas when it comes to extreme vilification and denigration of Jews.

These vile statements do not emanate from individuals – but from organizations that seek to assume leadership roles in any future Palestinian Arab State.

The original PLO Charter in 1964 - contained the following provisions in Articles 7 and 18:

"Jews of Palestinian origin are considered Palestinians if they are willing to live peacefully and loyally in Palestine"

"The claims of historic and spiritual ties, ties between Jews and Palestine are not in agreement with the facts of history or with the true basis of sound statehood. Judaism because it is a divine religion is not a nationality with independent existence. Furthermore the Jews are not one people with an independent personality because they are citizens of the countries to which they belong."

In 1968 these statements were revised and the following provisions appeared as part of Articles 6 and 20 in the newly adopted PLO Charter:

"The Jews who had normally resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion will be considered Palestinians"

"Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are citizens of the states to which they belong."

In 1974 the PLO was appointed as the sole spokesman for the Palestinian Arabs, and its leader,Yasser Arafat, was welcomed to the United Nations with an olive branch in one hand and a gun in the other.

Since then the PLO has progressed its above-declared racist policy of recovering every square meter of former Palestine and denying all Jews any right to Palestinian nationality in any part of former Palestine. It refuses to acknowledge Israel as the national home of the Jewish people.

The PLO is perfectly entitled to maintain and propagate its vile and racist program – but the civilized world should show its repugnance and rejection of such policy – and its refusal to recognize or endorse such a hate-filled program.

The President of the United States should refuse to welcome PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas to the White House or maintain any diplomatic discourse with the head of such an Organization. Let President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton issue such a declaration.

Other countries that have come out so strongly against "Innocence of Muslims" should be equally as responsive in rejecting the retention of these racist provisions in the constitution of an Organization they deal with. Financial assistance – now running into billions of dollars – should be discontinued until these provisions are removed.

Should Islam, being a religion – indeed a divine religion – be treated by the world in the same way Islam seeks to denigrate the Jews? Should the 56 Islamic member states forming the Organization of Islamic Co-Operation be denied any national identity or national recognition as Islamic states? Clearly not.

At the same time, Jews need to be treated differently by these Islamic states, which – with the exception of Egypt and Jordan – still have not recognized Israel after 64 years of concerted and ongoing efforts to deny the Jews a state in their biblical and ancestral homeland since Israel was established in 1948.

The 1988 Hamas Charter is equally as virulent in its steadfast opposition to Jews, Jewish statehood and Christianity – declaring in Article 13 (among many offensive provisions):

"Now and then the call goes out for the convening of an international conference to look for ways of solving the (Palestinian) question. Some accept, others reject the idea, for this or other reason, with one stipulation or more for consent to convening the conference and participating in it. Knowing the parties constituting the conference, their past and present attitudes towards Moslem problems, the Islamic Resistance Movement does not consider these conferences capable of realising the demands, restoring the rights or doing justice to the oppressed. These conferences are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Moslems as arbitrators. When did the infidels do justice to the believers?

"But the Jews will not be pleased with thee, neither the Christians, until thou follow their religion; say, The direction of Allah is the true direction. And verily if thou follow their desires, after the knowledge which hath been given thee, thou shalt find no patron or protector against Allah." (The Cow - verse 120).

There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with. As in said in the honourable Hadith:

"The people of Syria are Allah's lash in His land. He wreaks His vengeance through them against whomsoever He wishes among His slaves It is unthinkable that those who are double-faced among them should prosper over the faithful. They will certainly die out of grief and desperation."

Hamas has been banned as a terrorist organization in many countries around the world.

That is not enough.

It should be similarly banned from any form of contact or receive financial assistance of any sort whatsoever whilst it retains such inflammatory and offensive statements in its Charter.

Those who meet with its officials and representatives should be condemned for engaging in and giving encouragement to such Jew-hating and Christianity-hating incitement.

Those who have voted such an organization into power and do nothing to seek a change in its Charter or to overthrow it must bear the consequences of their decisions.

Jew-hatred – more than anything else – has been the driver in ending the 130-years-old conflict between Jews and Arabs. It did not begin in 1967.

Until it is stamped out and removed from the official policies of those representing the Palestinian Arabs - no real resolution of the conflict between Jews and Arabs can ever occur.

Thursday, 27 September 2012

The USA's former UN ambassador John Bolton tells interviewer Lee Lazerson on Jewish Life Television that Romney's concern for Israel's security is both emotional and tangible ("The US-Israel relationship is going to be a cornerstone of his foreign policy"), talks of the significance of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and Obama's credibility problem when his record on the Middle East is examined. Bolton goes on to discuss the dangerous current situation in that region generally and the consequent challenge for the United States and Israel. Regarding Iran's nuclear ambitions: "It's certainly not for peaceful use.... This has been a weaponisation programme from the beginning ..." He also discusses Israel's options ...

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Here is a lecture about the Sabra and Shatila massacres, as told to students at the Queen's University, Belfast (which became rather notorious among Israel-supporters for this unfortunate incident).

The lecturer is Richard Irvine, who introduces himself at the beginning. As the uploader (who talks of "a 36-hour holocaust") informs us, Irvine is

"education officer for the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign and joint co-ordinator of the Palestine Education Initiative. He has taught in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and he now teaches a course exploring the Israel-Palestine conflict at Queen's University.[My emphasis]He holds qualifications in Law, History, Education and Literature."

There are other videos which show the rest of the lecture; the uploader's introductions are instructive. See here and here and here

"I’m a proud Jewish American and I’m concerned that the single biggest entity funding you is J Street. J Street has given you $60,000, and as you know, J Street is funded by an attorney for the Saudi Embassy and has also been funded by the producer of one of the most anti-Semitic films ever made …"

Monday, 24 September 2012

Not new, but worth another look, an echo of the Mandate period when the British authorities forbade Jews to blow the shofar at the Kotel on Yom Kippur for fear of offending Arabs. It's the story of several individuals who defied the ban, and were imprisoned for their efforts. Of course, shortly after that the Kotel fell into Jordanian hands, and was inaccessible to Jews until liberated by Israeli troops in 1967.
All of which suggests that Jews should never agree to entrust their holy places to the control of others.

Here's someone missing from this blog for a while.
I love his treacle tones. I like his commonsense politics. I admire his commitment to his native Israel.
The engaging Gene Simmons, born Chaim Weitz (some sources say Witz) in Haifa, gives a pep talk to Israeli schoolkids on behalf of World ORT.

Sunday, 23 September 2012

Here, eyes blazing and voice embittered, is veteran anti-South African apartheid activist Kolin Thumbadoo, who migrated to Australia in the 1980s, viciously maligning Israel, Sydney businessman Frank Lowy and the Lowy Institute, and H. V. "Doc" Evatt, at the Palestine Action Group Sydney's demo a couple of days ago against Max Brenner in Parramatta. Hear the crowd whoop and call as they eagerly digest his rabble-rousing, ignorant invective.

Towards the end, to the approval of his listeners, he compares Israel with Nazi Germany, and makes the familiar-among-Israel-haters observation about "the children of the Holocaust" that was not long ago condemned so ably by non-Jewish pro-Israel blogger Chas Newkey-Burden:

'[T]here is still one anti-Israel argument that makes my jaw drop. And it is one that is made with unfortunate frequency. It is the "they-of-all-people" argument: the suggestion that the Jews, having faced extraordinary persecution, should know better than anyone not to be oppressors.

Put aside for a moment that the "oppression" which proponents of this argument are accusing Israel of committing is usually imaginary. When directed by gentiles towards Jews, the "they-of-all-people" argument is in its very essence so fundamentally ill-judged and unjust, and voiced with such a breathtaking lack of self-awareness, that my spirit flags when I hear it.

Where to begin in response? The heroic Howard Jacobson made a fine start when he proposed that "they of all people" is the natural successor of Holocaust denial. He wrote that the argument leaves the Jewish people doubly damned: to the Holocaust itself and to elevated moral scrutiny as a result of it.

I agree, and I would go further. I contend that, as a result of the Holocaust and what preceded it, it is we gentiles who should know better. The Holocaust followed centuries of slander, persecution, violence and murder committed by gentiles against Jews. So it is not you who have an increased responsibility to behave morally, but us.

For instance, something that we gentiles should know better than to do is lazily accuse Jewish people, or the Jewish state itself, of any misdemeanour. We have seen what centuries of slander against the Jewish people led to during the 1930s and ’40s. We see the hatred, heartbreak and bloodshed that such anti-Jewish libels continue to provoke, particularly in the Middle East....

Let us strip the "they-of-all-people" argument down to its very basics: gentiles telling Jews that we killed six million of your people and that as a result it is you, not us, who have lessons to learn; that it is you, not us, who need to clean up your act. It is an argument of atrocious, spiteful insanity. Do not accept it; turn it back on those who offer it. For it is us, not you, who should know better.'

One of the key targets of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK (logo: all of Eretz Israel) and the BDS movement is the multinational company Veolia (which specialises in environmental matters such as water and waste management and transport) as this statement from the PSC's Boycott Israel Goods initiative indicates:

"Veolia, a large French multinational, is operating a tramway linking illegal settlements in East Jerusalem with Israel. Not only do the settlements contravene article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention forbidding an occupier transferring its own civilians into the territory it occupies, but in most cases the establishment of the Israeli settlements involved war crimes too. The tramway tightens Israel’s hold on occupied East Jerusalem, ties the settlements more firmly into Israel and undermines chances of a just peace for the Palestinian people.

In the occupied Jordan Valley Veolia has been supporting illegal settlements by taking their refuse at its Tovlan landfill site. Veolia has now compounded its offence by trying to sell Tovlan to an illegal settlement, whilst maintaining an advisory role.

Veolia also operates bus services connecting illegal Israeli settlements to Israel. Palestinian use of these services is either forbidden or severely restricted.

Veolia must be made to halt these activities which enable Israel to maintain and tighten its grip on the occupation. Until then, we encourage a boycott of Veolia – a firm complicit in the ongoing occupation and dispossession of the Palestinian people."

Activists are encouraged to lobby local councils and other organisations to boycott and divest from Veolia.

But, despite their crowing to the contrary, their efforts are proving singularly unsuccessful. For the full details of their campaign and its abject failure see this report from Christian Middle East Watch and UK Lawyers for Israel. (Hat tip: J. H.)

Here (hat tip: Ian and Shirlee) is an eye-opener ablot building on the West Bank:

Meanwhile, from Socialist Alternative in New South Wales, a small insight into the perverse hard-leftist anti-Israel mindset:

"....Equating the armed might of the state with Muslim protesters bearing placards is ridiculous. Yet furore has engulfed the country over the fact that some of the placards at Saturday’s protest contained clearly reactionary slogans. Some are asking why Socialist Alternative has not at least criticised the demonstration on this basis....

We ask people who consider themselves anti-racist, but who have equivocated on the question of [last] Saturday’s rally to reconsider their position. In particular consider the context: The people demonstrating have seen hundreds of thousands of their brothers and sisters across the Middle East slaughtered by US imperialism and its allies – Israel routinely and loudly celebrates every time it assassinates Palestinian activists. Muslims have endured the war on terror – an ideological offensive that has sought to denigrate their beliefs, belittle their culture, and demonise them as a people....

The Zionists in the 20th century blamed European anti-Semitism on outspoken activist Jews, and today some Australian Aboriginal leaders blame the lack of a work ethic for Aboriginal disadvantage. Their ideas are totally misplaced. The reality is that no matter what Muslims do, the establishment promotes racism against them. The only way to beat it is to fight it, not apologise for it."

Friday, 21 September 2012

My two previous posts are both, coincidentally, concerned with Australia (regarding the ABC's Rosh Hashana insult to the Jewish community, and footage of the BDS rally in Parramatta respectively). The present post consists of an Australian's opinion of what the BBC was quick to categorise in its website sidebar as Mitt Romney's "gaffe" – Romney's view of the Palestinian leadership's true attitude towards Israel.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has made a valuable contribution to the public debate in exposing the utter folly of those who continue to still believe in the possibility of the creation of a second Arab state in former Palestine – in addition to Jordan – for the first time ever in recorded history.

Nineteen years of intensive efforts to bring this new Arab state to fruition have seen very little in tangible returns despite the most influential negotiating team ever assembled in history – the United Nations, the European Union, Russia and the United States – having been involved for the last nine years.

After two substantive offers by Israel to cede its claim to more than 90 per cent of the West Bank in 2000/2001 and 2008 in favour of the Palestinian Authority - and after Israel’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005 – the resumption of further negotiations without preconditions remains deadlocked.

If those negotiations are ever resumed - the likelihood of any concluded agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is very remote – unless the Palestinian Authority recognizes Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people and agrees to any newly created state of Palestine being demilitarised.

Mr Romney seems to have concluded that such Israeli demands will never be accepted – asserting:

'… the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish. Now why do I say that?

Some might say, well, just let the Palestinians have the West Bank and have security, and set up a separate nation for the Palestinians. And then come a couple of thorny questions. I don’t have a map here to look up geography, but the border between Israel and the West Bank is obviously right there, right next to Tel Aviv, which is the financial capital, the industrial capital of Israel, the center of Israel. It’s, what, the border would be seven miles from Tel Aviv to what would be the West Bank. Nine miles. The challenge is, the other side of the West Bank, the other side of what would be this new Palestinian state would either be Syria at one point or Jordan. And of course, the Iranians would want to do through the West Bank exactly what they did through Lebanon, and what they did into Gaza. Which is the Iranians would want to bring missiles, that armament, into the West Bank and potentially threaten Israel. So Israel, of course, would have to say, “That can’t happen. We’ve got to keep Iranians from bringing weaponry into the West Bank.” Well, that means that, who, the Israelis are going to patrol the border between Jordan, Syria and this new Palestinian nation? Well, the Palestinians would say, “No way. We’re an independent country. You can’t guard our border with other Arab nations."

And then how about the airport. How about flying into this Palestinian nation? Are we going to allow military aircraft to come in? And weaponry to come in? And if not, who’s going to keep it from coming in? Well, the Israelis. Well, the Palestinians are going to say, “We’re not an independent nation if Israel is able to come in and tell us what to land at our airport."

These problems — they’re very hard to solve. And I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes. Committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel. And these thorny issues. And I say, there’s just no way. So what you do is you move things along the best way you can, you hope for some degree of stability. But you recognize this is going to remain an unsolved problem. We live with that in China and Taiwan. We have a potentially volatile situation, but we sort of live with it. And we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately somehow, something will happen and resolve it. We don’t go to war to try and resolve it imminently.'

Commonsense is the hallmark of Mr Romney’s reasoning – something that is lacking in those that are so blind that they cannot and do not want to see.

Negotiations under the Oslo Accords were founded on – and have foundered on – the Arab failure to reject a series of Arab fictions and falsehoods appearing in the 1964 Charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)

Chief among them are claims that:

1. Only Arab – not non-Arab – residents of former Palestine are entitled to statehood

2. Palestine within the boundaries it had during the British Mandate is an indivisible territorial unit and an indivisible part of the Arab homeland

3. The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine and everything based on them are null and void

4. The establishment of the State of Israel is illegal, regardless of the passage of time

5. Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood.

6. Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are citizens of the states to which they belong.

In endorsing these fictions and falsehoods by themselves failing to recognize the State of Israel for the last 64 years, the Arab world – with the exception of Egypt and Jordan – has ensured that any hope of Oslo leading to the creation of a 22nd Arab state located in former Palestine will ever occur.

Mr Romney still hopes against hope that something will happen to resolve this 130-years-old seemingly intractable dispute between Arabs and Jews.

Perhaps the first step in the right direction would be an earnest attempt to try and restore, as far as is now possible, the territorial status quo existing prior to the creation of the PLO Charter in 1964 – when Jordan then occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem and Egypt occupied Gaza..

That would result in the dispute between Jews and Arabs being realistically seen for what it is – a border dispute between Israel, Jordan and Egypt to resolve the allocation of sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza – the last remaining areas of former Palestine where sovereignty remains undetermined between Arabs and Jews.

Replacing fiction and falsehood with historic, geographic and demographic facts is the ball that Mr Romney needs to pick up and kick downfield – should he become America’s next President.

Come to think of it – President Obama should do exactly the same thing if he is returned to the White House for another four years.

Recognizing reality and rejecting Arab revanchism is certainly the only way to now score a goal.

More hatred against Max Brenner and "Apartheid Israel" by the usual bizarre alliance, with footage of the Sydney protest against a certain video, described by Press TV's Sydney reporter Daniel Pizarro:

Press TV is, of course, the notorious propaganda arm of the repellent human rights-denying Iranian regime. It pimps conspiracy theories of an antisemitic kind. Yet those facts, as we see here, doesn't prevent the western lefties whose aim is to bring Israel down giving interviews to it.

Unconscionable, isn't it, how two of the world's most politically correct leftist broadcasting organisations cavalierly discard their sensitivity to the needs and feelings of minorities when it's Jews who are the group to be offended?

Can you imagine either broadcaster knowingly risking offending Muslims in similar fashion?

Just as the BBC's "Middle East editor" Jeremy Bowen went ahead with a question and answer session on Twitter regarding the Middle East fully aware that he was doing so on Rosh Hashana, so ABC presenter Tony Jones interviewed visiting Israel demoniser Ilan Pappé on that day.

The following speech in Federal Parliament by Michael Danby, MHR for Melbourne and a veteran defender of Israel and Jewish rights, sums up the situation:

"On Monday and Tuesday I had
leave for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. I thank the whips and the
parliament. For 120,000 Australians of similar background, even the most
secular families, this is like Christmas, a time for the gathering of
the clan.

Tony Jones, the host of Q&A, explained to that segment of
Australia's population that Q&A focusing half of its program on
Monday night on Israel was because he could not get his guest Mr Pappe
other than that night. Irving Wallach did a brave job on the program.
But I question Mr Jones; the ABC managing director, Mark Scott; and
indeed the new chairman, Jim Spigelman. This was a studied insult.
Having an academically undistinguished extremist on Rosh Hashana is like
having someone from Hizb ut-Tahrir advocate the abolition of
Christianity and Australia on Christmas Eve.

Nearby to Israel, a prosperous, peaceful, democratic country, 25,000
Syrian civilians have been murdered by their own government. Come on,
Tony Jones! When are you going to have a program of half an hour on the
situation in Syria? Stop putting Uncle Toms like Ilan Pappe and Antony
Loewenstein on your program. Let some people who speak for the
mainstream, either Left or Right, both of which support peaceful
evolution of the Middle East, appear on your program."

Thursday, 20 September 2012

"I stitched up a comedy on the morals of the harem. As a Spanish author, I thought I could mock Muhammad without a care. Instantaneously, an envoy... from where I don't know, was complaining that I offended by my verses against the Sublime Porte [Ottoman Imperial Court], Persia, part of the peninsula of India, all of Egypt, the kingdoms of Barca, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers [Barbary corsair ports], and Morocco. And right away, my comedy was put to the fire in order to please the Muhammadan princes, not one of whom – I believe – knows how to read, and who harshly strike our shoulder blades, calling us: Christian dogs...."

What's that all about, then?

Click here to find out and to discover an interesting pro-Israel blog to boot.

Wednesday, 19 September 2012

'On September 15th, 2012, 200 extremist Muslims demonstrated violently in the 8th district of Paris and on the Champs-Elysées. They tried to attack the US embassy , offended France, roared " Allah u akbar! "And" Death to the Jews”! five times! in Arabic at 2.35 mn and finally prayed illegally on the most beautiful avenue of the world.'

"Over the past few years I have noticed how religion as a subject has crept into more and more debates and festivals with one exception, the media.

TV festivals in particular have a strange ostrich-like relationship with the subject but the country as a whole doesn't seem to agree. For them it's here in our lives and it needs to be understood, debated and packaged in a way best suited for their changing needs and tastes.

That's the genesis of BBC RE:THINK 2012. It's an attempt to fuse the growing interest in the subject if not necessarily the practise of religion with how it's reported on television, radio and online.....

Religion
and belief in the UK and how we portray it on television and radio is
evolving. Old fashioned arguments about broadcast hours twenty years ago
or how many ex theology students worked on a show are largely
irrelevant to today's audience."

So blogged Aaqil Ahmed, the BBC's controversially-chosen Head of Religion and
Ethics, ahead of that event, which took place last week. He further explained:

"Taking part in and attending BBC RE: THINK 2012 will be other broadcasters, independent producers, journalists, academics, clergy, opinion formers and members of the public. It's a unique opportunity to bring all of us together for the first time.

Across the two days there should be something for everyone. From a must-watch conversation between the Chief Rabbi and Richard Dawkins, festival specials of The Moral Maze and The Big Questions to standing room-only master classes from Bettany Hughes and Jeremy Bowen there should be something for everyone...."

A master-class from Jeremy Bowen? In a conference concerned with religion?

A talk entitled "Rethinking the Arab Spring" in a conference concerned with what Britons believe?

Nobody would be cynical enough to suggest that this was an opportunity for Bowen to plug the book he's just written on the so-called Arab Spring.

And nobody would be cynical enough to suggest that despite Al Beeb's bend-over-backwards attempts at inclusiveness and accommodation of all sorts of minority groups a much-touted-by-the-BBC question and answer session on Twitter regarding the Middle East with the pally title "Ask Jeremy" took place on the first day of Rosh Hashana in order to evade pesky Jewish questioners:

If you want to ask me anything about the Middle East or my BBC job I'll be live tweeting answers between 1600-1700 GMT today.

"Why are you holding this on Rosh Hashanah, one of the holiest days in Jewish calendar? So Jews can't participate?"

prompting the following exchange with Bowen:

"not trying to avoid qs from religious Jews. agree timing could be better. will be doing this again."

"So did you know today was Rosh Hashanah"

"yes I did know it was Jewish New Year. And I also know it doesn't stop quite a few Jews using social media"

"Not most. So you knew it was Rosh Hashanah but went ahead anyway. What will BBC Trust think? Would you hold one during Ramadan?"

Another pesky bloke had the temerity to enquire ahead of time

"why was the Balen report not published?"

but his question would appear to have been overlooked.

Evidently, Bowen (either blissfully unaware or dismissive of expert warnings that Iran's top leaders believe that strife and chaos is necessary for the coming of the Twelfth Imam) takes a phlegmatic view of the prospect of a nuclear Iran.

For the man who, as this post reminds us, described the Muslim Brotherhood as being "conservative, moderate
and non-violent" until 'he got caught and quickly deleted the word “moderate”,' responded to the question "Could the West live with a Nuclear Iran?":

"West lived with nuclear Soviet Union. Would deterrence work with Iran?
Quite likely. Iranians are rational actors. But deterrence works both
ways. Nuclear Iran would be strengthened, and so would its allies. One
reason why Israel so worried."

Sunday, 16 September 2012

Here it is, at left, in Sydney's Hyde Park, a message put into the hands of a toddler at a rally protesting that crude stupid ill-advised video which cost Ambassador Stevens and three other blameless Americans in Libya their lives.
(Hat tip: reader Shirlee citing Joel Tozer on Twitter)

Unlike Sky News, consistently so much better than the British "national broadcaster" in just about every way, Al Beeb (briefly reporting that in Sydney there have been "clashes between police and demonstrators" as if it was all tit-for-tat) appeared reluctant to describe or show the threatening supremacist and violent slogans voiced and carried by a big mob of very angry men – many with Hamas and Islamist flags – marching to the US Consulate, or the fact that trouble-makers hurled sticks, stones and bottles at police, causing several police casualties and necessitating the use of pepper spray and dogs.

There are more photos and reports of the events in Sydney here, here and here

This Sydney Muslim condemns the mayhem:

(For a view of what really prompted the Middle East embassy attack see here)

Friday, 14 September 2012

"Palestine - A Match Made In Heaven" is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

'Yasser Arafat and Yitzchak Rabin were reportedly overheard having the following spirited conversation in heaven recently - frankly reflecting on the mistakes they both had made in trying to reach the "Peace of the Brave" for which they and last surviving member of the trio – Shimon Peres – had received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.

Yitzchak: I always thought that the way to peace between the Jews and the Arabs involved re-subdividing Palestine into two States with Jewish Israel sovereign in about 20% of Palestine and Arab Jordan sovereign in about 80% of Palestine.

Shimon persuaded me to pursue a different path by accepting Oslo.

In hindsight this was a terrible error of judgement by me and cost me my life, the lives of thousands of Jews and Arabs and the maiming, wounding and emotional scarring of our respective populations.

Yasser: Look Yitzchak, I know you weren't happy with Oslo. I felt it in that famous handshake at the White House. I was aware of your comment in The Australian newspaper on May 27, 1985:

"One tiny State between Israel and Jordan will solve nothing. It will be a time bomb."

Oslo would have created just such a State.

Yitzchak: I think my then prediction is more relevant today than ever - considering the collapse of Oslo, 9/11, your 2001 refusal of Barak's offer, the second Intifada, the failed Roadmap, the 2006 Lebanon War, the 2008 Abbas rejection of Olmert’s offer, the 10000 rockets fired into civilian population centres in Israel from Gaza since 2007, Operation Cast Lead in 2008, what's happening now in Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Jordan, Gaza, the West Bank and Iran’s nuclear threat to wipe out Israel.

The Quartet members are making a big mistake pursuing the two-state solution.

They supposedly respect my memory but not my opinions. They know I also said when making my prediction:

"the Palestinians should have a sovereign State which includes most of the Palestinians. It should be Jordan with a considerable part of the West Bank and Gaza. East of the Jordan River there is enough room to settle the Palestinian refugees."

Yasser: On June 25, 1987 I myself told the New York Review of Books that before the Second World War:

"Jordan was an emirate, completely part of Palestine."

I know my history as well as you, my dear partner in peace. We both agreed that Jordan was part of Palestine – part of the problem and part of the solution..…

Yitzchak: We really should have built on this common agreement when we finally decided to talk about peace.

Yasser: … I also told Der Spiegel in 1986:

"Jordanians and Palestinians are indeed one people. No one can divide us. We have the same fate."

Yitzchak: Even Jordan recognised the historic and demographic reality of what you were saying. As early as Spring 1982 Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan was quoted in the Foreign Affairs Review as endorsing the words of a leading Jordanian social scientist:

"the Jordanians and Palestinians are now one people, and no political loyalty, however strong, will separate them permanently."

Yasser: Farouk Kadoumi, the Head of the Political Department of the PLO, told Newsweek on 14 March 1977:

"Jordanians and Palestinians are considered by the PLO as one people."

Farouk stood by my wife Suha during my dying days in hospital in France. Now there is more concern about whether I was poisoned than there is about the failed peace process.

Yitzchak: So why did you insist on separate Palestinian and Jordanian delegations at the Madrid Conference in 1991 instead of a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation?

Yasser: Come on Yitzchak. You know there had been a power struggle between King Hussein and myself for control of Jordan. Could I ever forget or forgive how my followers and I were driven out of Jordan in September 1970 and the slaughter that was inflicted on us at that time? Do you think it was fun being shunted to Lebanon and thence to Tunisia?

Yitzchak: But surely you could have resolved your dispute by retaining King Hussein as Jordan’s monarch and appointing yourself as Jordan’s Prime Minister. By burying your differences you could have ended up as Prime Minister of 80 per cent of Palestine instead of President of nothing.

Yasser: That's all water under the bridge. Now that I have been removed from the scene is there perhaps something we can do to influence those left behind down there to re-subdivide Palestine along the lines you suggested 27 years ago?

Yitzchak: Well I know Shimon is just as aware as you and I are of Jordan's role in bringing peace to the region. Shimon told the Jewish Telegraph on April 19, 1991:

"It is not obstinacy to regard the populations of Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza as having greater similarities than differences. The Jordan River is not deep enough to turn into a knife blade serving to cut one piece of territory into three slices. Most of Jordan's population are Palestinians: the residents of the West Bank are Jordanian citizens and Jordan has distributed tens of thousands of passports to residents in the Gaza Strip. Jordan is therefore an existing State. It has an army. There is therefore no need to set up another State, another army."

Yasser: Shimon might now be President – but he is not the Israeli Government. Israel’s Prime Minister – Bibi Netanyahu – needs to endorse Shimon’s view and make it Israeli policy

Yitzchak: Bibi’s view is very similar to Shimon’s. Bibi told the United Nations on 11 December 1984:

"Clearly, in Eastern and Western Palestine, there are only two peoples, the Arabs and the Jews. Just as clearly, there are only two states in that area, Jordan and Israel. The Arab State of Jordan… does not allow a single Jew to live there… It also contains 4/5 of the territory originally allocated by this body’s predecessor, the League of Nations, for the Jewish National Home. The other State, Israel … contains less than 1/5 of the territory originally allocated to the Jews under the Mandate…. It cannot be said, therefore, that the Arabs of Palestine are lacking a state of their own. The demand for a second Palestinian Arab State in Western Palestine, and a 22nd Arab State in the world, is merely the latest attempt to push Israel back into the hopelessly vulnerable armistice lines of 1949.

Bibi eventually changed direction under extreme pressure from President Obama by proposing a demilitarized third state in former Palestine on 14 June 2009. That idea has gone down like a lead balloon.

He and Shimon need to resume enunciating their long held shared vision once again.

Shimon also needs to remind his presidential confreres what Ariel Sharon – in an induced coma since 2006 – told Time on April 17, 1989:

"Jordan is Palestine! The capital of Palestine is Amman. If Palestinian Arabs want to find their political expression, they will have to do it in Amman."

Ariel’s unilateral disengagement from Gaza and the building of a security fence in the West Bank has effectively divided former Palestine into Jewish and Arab sections - forming the basis for calling an international conference to re-subdivide Palestine along the lines I first suggested in 1985.

Yasser: That's all fine, but what about my beloved Jerusalem? Can I ever hope that my mortal remains will be reburied there?

Yitzchak: Yes. It is possible. East Jerusalem was part of Jordan between 1948-1967 and would have been so today had King Hussein kept out of the Six Day War. The Holy Places are specifically to be dealt with in the Peace Treaty I signed with King Hussein in 1994.

We can't solve all the problems from here. Those on earth are charged with negotiating the final outcomes. Now is a propitious time for them to attempt to do so.

Yasser: How can we get the Quartet to abandon its plans to continue pursuing the impossible? Visions have a habit of turning into the worst nightmares.

Yitzchak: The Quartet should heed the above things we said whilst on earth, but which we unfortunately failed to try to put into practice. This will be the finest tribute they can pay to our memories and will merit the Nobel Prize that we were in truth prematurely awarded. This will be the real peace of the brave. Pressure must be put on Jordan to re-subdivide Palestine, the same kind of pressure that is being put on Israel to accept the badly flawed and thoroughly discredited Road Map. Then perhaps the peace we all desire will be attainable.

Yasser: Shalom Yitzchak

Yitzchak: Salaam Yasser.

It is hard to believe that I first published this conversation in 2004. Everything said then still remains true today in this updated version.

Re-subdivide Palestine into two states – one Jewish – one Arab. Two peoples need two states – not three.

"It's a disease; it has to be dealt with," says New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, himself a Democrat, of American Jewry's tendency to vote Democrat and to give priority to domestic issues such as gay marriage despite the grave danger that a second term of the Obama administration poses to Israel.

"I do not trust the President of the United States with regard to the security of the State of Israel," he tells Fox News, warning in impassioned tones that with Israel's very survival in dire peril American Jews should not vote for Obama.

Jacob Prasch is a Christian missionary based in Israel, and he fishes for Jewish souls, which obviously does not endear him to those he seeks to proselytise. Regrettable and offensive though such attempts are (there were quite enough of those in the Galut through the centuries), he makes a number of pertinent points in defence of Israel, not least regardingterritorial occupations around the world and and the hypocrisy of those who, having only the Jewish State in their sights, turn a blind eye to them.

Prasch's disparaging reference to the UN and its Human Rights Council reminds me that Hillel Neuer of UN Watch has just drawn attention to the anti-Israel views of official Alfred de Zayas, and has opened a petition demanding that de Zayas be stripped of his post. Read more here (hat tip: reader Rita)

Thursday, 13 September 2012

Here's a video from Australia in which the Trade and Investment manager of the Israel Trade Commission is interviewed by the executive editor of Asia Pacific Security Magazine.

Explains the uploader:

"Richard Vesely, Manager, Trade and Investments, Israel Trade Commission introduces ISRAEL HLS 2012 Expo & Conference with a focus on Safe Cities & Critical Infrastructure. The bi-annual event includes keynote Israeli and International Speakers and a mock emergency incident under management. Richard also provides an overview of the Israel Trade Commission and Israel's advanced standing in the homeland security market in the Asia Pacific and why participating in delegations to Israel, as planned for 2013 is important for professional development.

Interview with Chris Cubbage, Executive Editor of the Asia Pacific Security Magazine, at Security 2012 Exhibition and Conference, Sydney. Produced in association with Diversified Exhibitions"

And if you thought the first term of his presidency was bad for US-Israel relations, a second term would be even worse. This coming presidential election is the most vital for Israel's interests and security, and the 150,000 Americans in Israel should, whatever their other priorities such as ensuring economic recovery, vote for Mitt Romney.

Wednesday, 12 September 2012

Destination Down Under. That seems to be the motto of international anti-Israel activists this season. The Sydney Opera House and Wollongong University await Ilan Pappé this month, and a pair of Israeli dissidents worked their mischief last month. One of them, Micha Kurz, was instrumental in founding the NGO Breaking The Silence, and appears on this video giving aid and comfort to Israel's enemies by waxing enthusiastic about the BDS movement.

I almost posted that video yesterday, but was so disgusted that I decided not to give it oxygen.

The antipodean J-Wire service carries an article by Dr Ron Weiser, immediate past president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, and a vehement critic of the New Israel Fund and of David Landau's visit to Australia under its auspices last year, who writes in part:

'Australians for Palestine promoted a function in Melbourne on the 28th of August.

They produced a very nice flyer for the event.

NIF Australia has been desperately trying to separate themselves from the people presenting at forums under the Australians for Palestine banner.

They say that although the co founder of BtS is no longer a spokesperson for BtS, we should ignore the publicity of those who host him. They say that he has made that clear.

Well, except to his hosts apparently, or to anyone interested in attending the actual event.

So now the issue deepens, because another NIF-funded organisation is also being used in the Australians for Palestine promotion of a second function – Sheik Jarrah Solidarity.

For the Melbourne function, the cofounder of BtS is described precisely as that, without qualification.

The Australians for Palestine promotion was headed "Israeli peace activists speak out" and featured the two Israelis which also included the following descriptions on the promotional leaflet

"Sahar Vardi – is involved in the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement

Micha Kurz – a co-founder of Breaking the Silence"

Both of these organisations received significant funds from the New Israel Fund.

Both of these organisations are political organisations who have an agenda of opposing the policies of the democratically elected government of Israel.

That is their right of course, but just because they cannot attract the support of the Israeli electorate, it does not mean that their activists or cofounders will "sensitise Israelis to the ways in which the occupation is having an effect on Israel’s values" as claimed last week by NIF Australia, by being promoted by Australians for Palestine.

..... The basic problem with NIF’s reasoning is its failure to recognise, or perhaps it is purposeful, the main complaint against them.

They like to smugly say that we should not shoot the messenger.

That they are the moral voice.

The problem is not in who is the messenger at all – the problem is the message.

The message is twisted.

The message is unproven....

This is not a debate about whether one should be washing "dirty linen" in public or not, it is about whether the "dirty linen" actually exists....'

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

That consistently pro-Israel newspaper, The Australian, carries an article by Ian Wilcock, a former Australian ambassador to Israel, explaining why antisemitism on the part of the Palestinians is an obstacle to peace:

"An astonishing part of PA ideology is the constant use of the notoriously forged document of a century ago, the so-called Protocols of the Elders of Zion. For the PA, this is presented as proof that Jews are running an international conspiracy to conquer and divide the world and to portray Jews and Israelis as inherently evil.....

Sadly there is much more....

And then there is Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip and which is in a declared partnership with the PA. It has signed up to every vile anti-Semitic calumny history has to offer. Its charter calls for the destruction of the state of Israel.

....To allow these obscenities to continue must further undermine the confidence of the only negotiating partner that could actually deliver a state for Palestinians - Israel. Not to take such action would confirm that the PA has joined with those (headed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran) whose objective is to threaten, demonise, delegitimise, even obliterate Israel, but who refuse to engage in the hard and even dangerous work of negotiation and compromise...."

The usual suspects are grumbling on social media about this article, which is reviving memories amongst them of how, to their anger, the Canberra Times (not known for its friendship towards Israel), carried last year an excellent article by Rev Peter Kurti in which he correctly labelled the Greens' campaign for a boycott of Israeli products antisemitic. In the course of the article he remarked:

'An essential part of the compact of a free society is that all its citizens are afforded protection from persecution and freedom from fear....

When a segment of society is targeted by reason of its identity – be it a religious, ethnic or national identity – the right of that segment to live free from fear is compromised....

BDS states on its website that boycott targets are chosen ‘"based on their direct contribution to grave human rights abuses and international law violations of the Israeli state and military’".

BDS declares two objectives. First: compel Israel to respect international law and freedom; second: achieve justice and equality for Palestinians by ending what it describes as ‘"Israel’s systematic oppression of the Palestinian people’"....

Behind the BDS rhetoric about justice, freedom and peace lurks a much darker objective. Committed to the belief that Israel, a tiny sliver of a democratic state, is the leading threat to world peace, the boycott campaign is part of a renewed offensive to challenge the legitimacy of the state of Israel. And with that, the nature of the BDS campaign is revealed.

Far from being simply an attempt to urge the Israeli government to change its policy on the occupied territories, the campaign really amounts to a denunciation of the Jewish state itself.

After all, if BDS is so concerned about ‘"basic human rights" and ‘"violations of international law", why was it so oddly silent when Syrian forces loyal to President Assad shelled the besieged city of Latakia, forcing more than 5000 Palestinian refugees to flee a refugee camp?

And why doesn’t it threaten boycotts against any of the human rights-violating, non-democratic regimes around the world?....

"They’ve got rocks in their heads,’" union leader Paul Howes has said of BDS attempts to equate the [Max Brenner] chocolate protest with the campaign against apartheid in South Africa.

The BDS has crossed the line between a protest which is anti-Israeli policy and one which is anti-Semitic....'

For a recent typically crackerjack article by Daniel Greenfield on the hypothetical scenario of a Middle East without Israel see the Love of the Land blog, where many other interesting items are daily to be found.

The Paralympics have ended on a triumphant note, with it being widely acknowledged that the achievements of the athletes taking part has led to a discernible shift in public attitudes towards people with disabilities that, being positive, is all to the good.

With this in mind, as well as the fate of the young Christian girl in Pakistan, reportedly with Downs Syndrome, who was snatched from her family and incarcerated after being accused of defiling a copy of the Koran, here's a very beautiful and moving documentary set in Israel, showing how the lives of children with that same syndrome is being transformed thanks to the enlightened and innovative methods introduced by the wonderful Professor Reuven Feuerstein (a Romanian-born Holocaust survivor who reached Eretz Israel in 1945) and practised at the institute in Jerusalem that bears his name.

The work of the Feuerstein Institute is just another example of the many and diverse developments for the benefit of humankind (a recent one being the invention of an artificial retina designed to restore the sight of persons blinded by macular degeneration) that characterise Israel, yet which are seldom if ever acknowledged by those who seek Israel's destruction.

Monday, 10 September 2012

Deservedly, the Greens in New South Wales have been trounced at the polls, pro-Israel state parliamentarian Walt Secord, Labor leader in the Legislative Council, commenting aptly:

"The stain of the illogical and antisemitic BDS campaign will forever linger over the Greens.

Voters across NSW rejected the Greens because they forgot about
rates, rubbish and recycling and starting wasting resources on fringe
matters like attacking Israel.

Across the State, the Greens had massive swings against them.

They suffered major swings in Leichhardt, Woollahra, Marrickville,
Randwick, Sydney City, Byron Shire, the Blue Mountains, Lane Cove and
Waverley; with some of the results reaching double digits.

Since the departure of former Greens leader Bob Brown, there has been
a plunge in Green support; Bob Brown was a moderating force when
compared to the hard-line faction associated with Senator Lee Rhiannon.

It is not surprising that one of the largest
swings came from Woollahra at almost 12 per cent; Randwick at almost
nine per cent and Waverley at almost seven per cent – as all three
electorates have significant Jewish populations who would have despised
the Greens’ stand on Israel and the BDS."

Meanwhile, Radio National, a component of the ABC (Australia's counterpart to the BBC) has been indulging in more one-sided anti-Israel propaganda, this time courtesy of NSW academic and veteran Israel-basher Dr Peter Slezak who travelled to the West Bank and Gaza earlier this year and met, among others, members of the far left agenda-ridden Israeli NGO "Breaking The Silence"
(Hat tip: reader Shirlee)

Sunday, 9 September 2012

An outfit calling itself BoycottIsraelNetwork has uploaded this footage of the outrageous scenes outside and inside the Edinburgh theatre on the opening night of the Batsheva Dance Company's performance there.

There's manic screeching of the blood libel, the burning of tickets, and a female activist gloatingly telling a wildly receptive mob of the impact of the disruptions upon the audience...

Writes the uploader:

'Boycott campaigners turned the empty Zionist slogan "Culture unites,
Boycotts Divide" totally on its head in Edinburgh last weekend, drawing
some of Scotland's best known cultural figures, many theatre--goers and
Ohad Naharin, artistic director of Israel's world-renowned Batsheva
dance company, into public dialogue about its role as a state-funded
"cultural ambassador."'

Terror Groups Eyeing Israel's Destruction from inside NGOs

Two stalwarts go sleuthing:

For their findings cliick on image

"The research suggests that antisemitism is the fuel that primes the PSC engine"

To read the research report click on image

'For as long as these antisemites wrap themselves up in the Palestinian flag, too many people are willing to turn a blind eye. Only against Jews is this type of racism openly tolerated. It is flourishing in schools, colleges, universities, unions and in city councils. In fact, so rampant is the disease now, in some settings you can be ostracised if you do not partake in the frenzy yourself. Bashing Jews has becomes a trendy position for the ignorant social justice warrior. "Palestinianism" is a viral "ponzi scheme" and as it spreads, it carries antisemitism in the undergrowth.' David Collier (2017)

'This new rise in antisemitism, which I had thought long dead, was not shaven-headed white imbeciles from the far right. It was Muslims, a large chunk of it.... Suddenly I grasped that the British far left didn’t want people to know about antisemitism because it pointed the finger at people they really, really liked. From that moment on, it all fell into place.... Time and again the same tropes emerged, the same sort of stuff that Streicher and Goebbels would have commended – and uttered.... And from that a whole bunch of other stuff emerged: the old blood libel business (a favourite of the repulsive Jenny Tonge).... Nice, avuncular, Jeremy Corbyn, with his peace badges, happily laying a wreath at the graveside of Palestinian terrorists who murdered innocent Jewish athletes, oh, and much much more.... It is the same antisemitism, exactly the same: the obsession with Israel to the exclusion of everything else, the conspiracy theory paranoias, the derangement.... Here’s the test – if you cannot see the flagrant racism in the BDS movement, and if you are obsessed with the perfidy of the Middle East’s only democracy to the exclusion of all else, you are an antisemite. That means a good proportion of the Labour Party, including the leader, and almost all of Momentum: no brown shirts, no marching bands, but the same old filth, dressed in the clothes of a polytechnic geography lecturer.'Rod Liddle (2018)

Pro-Israel Down Under

Shalom and Welcome to my blog!I'm the little Aussie blogger who took the screenshot and broke the story of Stephen Sizer's notorious 9/11 post, and I've since broken two other stories that subsequently went viral, one Australia-wide and one, thanks to the sterling work of two other bloggers, worldwide. I remain very surprised and very honoured to have been co-winner, Best Pro-Israel Blog, Hasby Awards, 2013Please "Like" me on Facebook; my Facebook page ishere

'In a region where women are stoned, gays are hanged, Christians are persecuted, Israel ... is different.... Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, only Israel's Arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights.... Israel is not what is wrong about the Middle East. Israel is what is right about the Middle East.' Bibi Netanyahu (20 Iyar 5771; 24 May 2011)Scroll to end for more quotations

Tired of anti-Balfour agitprop?

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Balfour and Beyond

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Try this for Sizer

Sizer 101. Click image for link

'Before the June 1967 Six Day War, there were no such things as "settlements". Palestinians were trying to destroy and displace Israel anyhow. The core problem is not, and never was, "settlements," but the right of Israel (or any non-Muslim nation) to exist inside any borders in that part of the world.If you take a stand that is based on a lie, then that stand cannot succeed. If you try to oppose antisemitism but pretend it is the same thing as "Islamophobia," then the structure on which you have made your stand will totter and all your aspirations will fail. If you try to make a stand based on the idea that settlement construction rather than the intransigence of the Palestinians to the existence of a Jewish state is what is holding up a peace deal, then facts will keep on intruding.' Douglas Murray (31 December 2016)https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9685/britain-little-lies

BDS is Antisemitic

Click image to learn why

The Bigotry & Immorality of BDS

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'Islamophobia does NOT come from the same wellspring of hatred as antisemitism. Antisemitism is a true prejudice because the hatred and demonisation it promotes derive entirely from lies and a repudiation of rationality itself. Islamophobia is a false allegation of prejudice which is deployed to silence rational criticism based on actual facts about attitudes and practices within the Islamic world. [L]ethally compromised even-handedness is to misunderstand, and thus minimise, antisemitic attitudes and behaviour while shutting down legitimate and necessary discussion of the threat from the Islamic world – even to demonise as “Islamophobic” anyone who draws attention to the extent and consequences of Muslim antisemitism.' Melanie Phillips (14 December 2016)

"Selling a house to a Jew is a betrayal of Allah"

To read more click image

Maps of Mendacity & Mischief

Click image to learn why

These misleading maps were deliberately prepared to date from 1946 – intentionally papering over the momentous events that had occurred between 1917 and 1945. Attempts to unravel binding precepts of international law established between 1917 and 1945 – and failing to insist on their being upheld and enforced – has a lot to do with the sorry situation the world finds itself in today.David Singer (2016)

How They Twist the Truth!

Click image for more on the lies

Jews have re-assumed the role of the canary in the mine and are the first to be targeted, but the world would face the same threat if Jews did not exist. Israel has been at the front lines confronting Islamic extremism but has received scant support... For Jews, the writing has been on the wall for a long time. The virulence of the antisemitic hatred closing in on Jews in Europe (and elsewhere) is horrifying... Europe is today facing a crisis as serious as the confrontation with Nazism. If Western leaders continue behaving like Chamberlain and fail to stand up to this global threat, it could usher in a new Dark Age in which the Judeo-Christian culture is subsumed by primitive barbarism. The writing is on the wall Isi Leibler (12 January 2015)

Expose The Lies!

There is a war of lies and deceit on the internet generating unbelievable hate by denigrating and delegitimising the legal rights conferred on the Jewish people by the League of Nations in 1922 and the United Nations in 1945. The idea that there are two narratives on the Arab-Jewish conflict is rubbish. There is only one – the factual truth that details the return of the Jewish people to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in its ancient biblical, ancestral and historic homeland after 3500 years of dispersion with the unanimous endorsement of the nation states then comprising the League of Nations.... Generals can’t fight a war without soldiers. Jews around the world need to join the fight or vacate the internet to the Jew-haters and their lies that repeated often enough eventually become accepted as truth.David Singer (2016)

Exposing Lies

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The "Apartheid" Slur

The division of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into three separate areas “A”, “B” and “C” was agreed on by Israel and the PLO pursuant to the Oslo Accords.95% of the West Bank Arabs live in Areas A and B and their daily lives are under the total administration and control of the PLO since the Palestinian Authority was disbanded by Abbas in January 2013. The PLO has total security control in A and shares security control in B with Israel. Israel has total administrative and security control in C.Israel is entitled to and will continue to take responsibility for the security of Jews living in the West Bank.Jews were given the legal right to settle in the West Bank under article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter. They did so for decades until they were driven out in 1947 and not able to return there until 1967.There are Arab roads only in the West Bank that Jews are not allowed to use. Jews are also forbidden from entering Area “A”. Selling land to Jews is forbidden by the PLO under pain of death. The PLO runs the daily lives of 95% of the West Bank Arabs and Hamas runs the daily lives of 100% of the Gazan Arabs. They have been under occupation – and subjugation – by these two evil groups for the last ten years and given no say in their future or any opportunity to elect others to lead them following the disastrous political decisions of their leaders over the past ten years. Hamas and the PLO do not accept the continued existence of a Jewish State and call for its disappearance. The narratives did not begin in 1948 – they began in about 1917. How do you make peace with an enemy that has been obsessed with not recognising any Jewish national rights in former Palestine for the last 100 years?David Singer (2016)

Telling the Truth

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The Jews of the Holy Land ... are surrounded by hostile states 650 times their territory and sixty times their population. Yet their last, best hope of ending two millennia of international persecution - the State of Israel - has somehow survived. When, during the Second World War, the island of Malta came through three terrible years of bombardment and destruction, it was rightly awarded the George Cross for bravery. Today, Israel should be awarded a similar decoration for defending democracy, tolerance and Western values against a murderous onslaught that has lasted twenty times as long.Andrew Roberts (historian)

A voice of courage & reason

He knows, y'know

An Aussie demo against BDS

On the left, black people are usually allowed to define what’s racism; women can define sexism; Muslims are trusted to define Islamophobia. But when Jews call out something as antisemitic, leftist non-Jews feel curiously entitled to tell Jews they’re wrong, that they are exaggerating or lying or using it as a decoy tactic – and to then treat them to a long lecture on what anti-Jewish racism really is. Jonathan Freedland (The Guardian, 29 April 2016)

An awkward fact for some!

Socialist thought was tainted from its very origins with the heavy baggage of anti-Jewish stereotypes. Robert Wistrich, From Ambivalence to Betrayal:The Left, the Jews, and Israel (2012)

BDS hypocrisy!

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Want more?

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Israel is understandably obsessed with security, but its greatest security lies ultimately not in the Israeli Defence Forces, but in political warfare.... Most of the world is not deeply interested in what happens in Israel, and probably does not want to be deluged with legalistic defences of particular actions. What it wants is a clear, calm, repeated case. It is a case – aimed more at public opinion than at foreign ministries – about freedom, democracy, a Western way of life and the need for the whole of the free world to fight terrorism. Sometimes you hear Israelis say: “It doesn’t matter what we say. The whole world is against us.” You can see why they say it, for they are indeed unfairly treated. But when they say it, they are uttering a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they won’t say what needs saying, no one else will say it for them. Charles Moore (2010)

Once again the armies of the Arab nations are coordinating their military efforts to destroy Israel - whatever they say about wishing merely to regain the lost territories.... [I]f the present Arab offensive had been launched at the pre-1967 frontiers, then the Israelis would indeed have been fighting to avoid annihilation. It seems now that the Israelis were right to maintain the ceasefire lines gained in 1967, and that to do so is the only guarantee of their continued safety.Alan Sillitoe (The Times, 11 October 1973)

A nuclear Iran threatens our existence

Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam... In this deadly game of thrones, there’s no place for America or for Israel, no place for Christians, Jews or Muslims who don’t share the Islamist medieval creed, no rights for women, no freedom for anyone... [T]he greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons. To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle, but lose the war. We can’t let that happen...[T]he days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over. We are no longer scattered among the nations, powerless to defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in our ancient home. And the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage. For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves....Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand. But ... I know that America stands with Israel... You stand with Israel, because you know that the story of Israel is not only the story of the Jewish people but of the human spirit that refuses again and again to succumb to history’s horrors. Bibi Netanyahu (12 Adar 5775; 3 March 2015)

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions, of people, and there is no refugee problem.... [N]o one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees.... Other nations - when they are defeated - survive and recover, but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed.... [A]s it goes with Israel, so it will go with all of us. Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us.Eric Hoffer (1968)

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אם תרצו , אין זו אגדה

Most of the present Arab countries were given their freedom after the 1914-18 War, or after the 1939-45 War.... Yet to listen to Arab spokesmen one might think that they had been cheated ... because they have not also got Israel. Israel is only .2 per cent of the land where Arab States have been established. Surely no fair-minded man can begrudge the Jews their own promised land when it is remembered that for every 2 acres that went to make up Israel, 1,000 acres became Arab.... Why is there an Arab refugee problem? The oil-rich countries have the money. There is no shortage of land, and the Israelis have the technical knowledge to show how it could be developed and made fertile. Bring those things together and the problem could be solved. 3rd Earl of Balfour (1968)

January 7, 2015 has already its place in the history of infamy, but also will be the date when the defenders of freedom and democracy will rise and pay tribute to those who died for their freedom and ours. Therefore, we must not forget on which side we are and who are our allies in the defense of the West and its values. Whether we admit it or not, the West is at war with an enemy who will not stop to destroy us...The State of Israel boasts a commandment that, in one of the darkest hours in the fight for liberty Winston Churchill taught: "Never give up". Israel has proven to be a key ally in the fight against Islamism and also an example of how a liberal democracy can resist the jihadist stake and thrive as a Western nation ... Not only France but also all the West should look to Israel to defeat Islamism...friendsofisraelinitiative.org

[I]t’s impossible to believe that an active antisemite wouldn’t – if only opportunistically – seek out somewhere to nestle in the manifold pleats of Israel-bashing, whether in generally diffuse anti-Zionism, or in more specific Boycott and Divestment Campaigns, Israeli Apartheid Weeks, End the Occupation movements and the like....[T]ell me that not a single Jew-hater finds the activity congenial, that criticising Israel can “never” be an expression of Jew-hating, not even when it takes the form of accusing Israeli soldiers of harvesting organs...Howard Jacobson (The Independent, 27 May 2013)

What has happened to the 800,000 Jews who lived for over 2000 years in the Arab lands ...? Where are they in Arab society today? You dare talk of racism when I can point with pride ... to the fact that it is as natural for an Arab to serve in public office in Israel as it is incongruous to think of a Jew serving in any public office in an Arab country, indeed being admitted to many of them. Chaim Herzog (6 Kislev 5736; 10 November 1975)

I stand with Israel, I stand with the Jews.... I defend their right to exist, to defend themselves, to not let themselves be exterminated a second time. And, disgusted by the antisemitism of many Europeans ... I am shamed by this shame that dishonours my country and Europe.Oriana Fallaci

For Western countries to side with those who question Israel's legitimacy, for them to play games in international bodies with Israel's vital security issues, for them to appease those who oppose Western values, rather than robustly to stand up in defence of those values, is not only a grave moral mistake, but a strategic error of the first magnitude. Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is lost and Israel is lost, then we are lost too. Jose Maria Aznar

Israel is, for us, a normal and a special country. A normal country, because it is just like any other democracy. A special country, because the Jewish culture, which eventually became the Judeo-Christian culture of the dignity of man, is the conceptual foundation of liberalism and democracy. This is why attacking Israel is tantamount to attacking Europe and the West. This is also why disputing Israel's legitimacy and its right to existence means questioning democracy. And this is why we are Friends of Israel. By defending Israel, we are defending ourselves.Marcello Pera

Israel ... is beset today by a unique combination of threats. It must defend its people from attack while defending its very right to exist. No other nation in the world faces this dual challenge. To deny Israel's right to confront some of the world's most vicious terrorist groups in order to ensure the safety of its citizens is to corrode international norms from within ... The assault on Israel is one part of a more general assault on the West, on democracy, and on the moral and cultural heritage that grew from the fruitful interaction of Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome ... Should these efforts succeed, similar efforts will certainly be turned against other western democracies.George Weigel

Apart from America itself, Israel still stands as the world's brightest model of national self-liberation based on ideals of individual responsibility and human freedom. Israel's ability to withstand Arab attempts to destroy it in one of the longest and most lop-sided wars ever fought serves as an indelible testimony to the strength of democratic culture.... We know from the past that the West paid dearly for ignoring Hitler's war against the Jews. One can only hope it will not pay as dearly for having ignored or underestimated for so long the Arab war against Israel and the Jews. Ruth Wisse

The choice before us is not between victory and defeat, but between victory and annihilation. We therefore have not the slightest intention of allowing the re-creation of the conditions of vulnerability in which we found ourselves, abandoned and alone, in the summer of 1967. Diplomat Michael Comay (1970)

I am duty-bound to defend freedom, culture, peaceful coexistence, the civic education of children, and all the principles that the Tablets of the Law have rendered universal. Principles which Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. This means that, since I am a Gentile, a journalist and a leftist, I have a triple moral commitment to Israel. Because, if Israel were to be vanquished, modernity, culture and freedom would also be crushed. Even though the world has failed to wake up to this fact, Israel's struggle is the world's struggle. Pilar Rahola

About Me

I'm a writer/researcher, with many academic books and articles under my own name. Daphne Anson is my blogging alias. Combining the names of two ships, it's a moniker of special significance to me - I'm a naval history buff. I use an alias owing to a perceived need to keep my blogging and professional identities separate. An Aussie, I've long been interested in
politics and foreign affairs, having studied International Relations in the USA and Britain for my first degree, and I also hold a doctorate. I began blogging in response to the exponential rise in antisemitism and hostility to Israel in the wake of the Mavi Marmara affair.
Another reason I use an alias: http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2015/08/alias-two-ships-daphne-anson.html

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The spiritual awakening which Jews experienced almost without exception last June must not be allowed to become a sealed and finished episode.... Support must be rallied among men of goodwill and their governments if we are to reach that secure and just peace in the attainment of which Israel has never ceased to believe. President Zalman Shazar (1968)

Our judicial system is one of the best in the whole world. Our democracy is the only one in the Middle East.... Just imagine, what would have happened if the Arabs had, like us, accepted the Partition resolution? There would be a Palestinian State living side by side in peace, security, and, I can add, prosperity with the State of Israel, 62 years later. [C]ome to Israel, and realize how small Israel is and what a wonderful place it is. Diplomat Gabriella Shalev (2010)

Israel's Arab citizens are the only Arabs in the Middle East who enjoy genuine civic and religious rights. Religious freedom is protected in Israel as nowhere else, tragically, in the Middle East. And civil rights, of course, there's a supreme court judge who is an Arab, ministers including in my government who are Arabs, Druze, and members of parliament who are Arabs and so on. I would like to see more involvement of Arabs in civil life.Bibi Netanyahu on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show (5 Nov. 2017)